Bird & Blend Tea Co.

Backlog & Sip down

Hot and unsweetened is boring. It’s mildly tart and uneventful with the exception it has hibiscus, but okay.

Iced with monk fruit sugar is dandy. It’s like drinking cherry kool-aid as a child (or fruit punch? Been ages since I’ve partook kool-aid).

71/100

I really wish I added more tasting notes to the sticky note on the back. Ha-ha.

A few months ago, we celebrated our new home by placing a massive order from B&B since it was a bucket listed tea vendor (especially for the lady love). Upon the very large quantity of teas purchased, I snagged a few that seemed interesting to me. Sticky Chai seemed intriguing due to addition of honey to the mix of tea and spices. The aroma is lovely, but muted. I love a strong spicy/bold chai with the most minimal sweetener added; however, milk is necessary.

Anyway, I made the attempt around the time of receiving this to stove top it. I noted that it was “ok” and put it in the sip down pile. And there it sat until today. I brewed it Western style at 200F for 5 minutes and frothed oat milk as the topper. I’ll note that this is the brewing method of choice since the tea, I believe, isn’t meant to be anything extreme. It’s supposed to give you the essence of chai, without the punch in the face. Which is unfortunate for me, but this will be a solid session for a local friend who advised that they like a chai, but not a bold chai. So, into the “drink at work” pile it’ll go!

Isn´t it wonderful to receive an unexpected present? Like a couple of individually wrapped tea pyramids from Bird&Blend?
I had ordered from a fun stationary site (ohh deer) in UK, and my husband brought me the order when he returned from a visit to his team in UK (a colleague was so friendly to receive and store my order), and this was a special treat for Easter.
Chocolate Digestives is the right name for this tea where cacao is well present in nose and mouth, but the sweetness is controlled (by the liquorice and fenugreek, which I cannot detect separately?) so one feels like having a chocolate biscuit (digestive), more than a chocolate cookie or a hot chocolate. Nice

This one is really weird. There’s a bit of a murky strawberry on a murky rooibos base. It doesn’t taste like jammy dodgers. There’s nothing cookie-like about it. It’s drinkable, but it’s not good.

There’s a weird fakeness in here that I can’t quite place. But also…it does slightly remind me of cookies and cream. Ha maybe the artificial-ness of that weird flavor is managing to make me think of the cream in an Oreo, which of course is vegan and made of who knows what. So this tea isn’t bad, but it’s a little fake for me. Decently well executed and accurate tasting with some sweetener and milk. The last time I had this, I tasted the popped rice quite strongly.

I’ve been putting off trying this one because I’m a little fickle about ginger, but it was actually kind of perfect!? Just ginger-y enough with undertones of cinnamon and a smooth but full bodied black tea base. Most importantly, though, it really nailed that more golden and kind of malty biscuit flavour. From sip one I really felt like it was quite accurately conveying the namesake inspiration, and I ended up enjoying the profile a lot. Made me want to dunk actual biscuits in it!

Though I didn’t love this tea at first, I think paying better attention to my steeping parameters has really helped me appreciate it. I do sort of get a Biscoff vibe from this! I guess it’s not named Biscoff anymore, but my bag from May of 2023 still says that. It tastes cookie-ish and nicely desserty with milk and sugar. Not bad at all!

I had this one last night. It is the second bag from the advent calendar. I did not like it very much when it was hot. The hibiscus was prominent. However as it cooled I liked it more. It might be a nice refreshing glass as an iced tea on a hot summer day.

Working on a big project this week, so a lot of the teas I’ve been drinking have kind of fallen into the backdrop while I focus on other things. In this case, I think that benefited the tea quite a bit. In the past, while I’ve been more attentive while drinking this tea, I’ve really picked it apart but drinking it so much more casually I felt like I was really getting a strong “chocolate chip cookie” vibe.

I found this single wrapped bag waaaayy in the back of my tea drawer. I wonder if it was part of an advent calendar that I put aside because of the hibiscus? It said Best Before January 2022 on the wrapper..

Ooops.

The flavor seemed muted to me. Probably because it was old? I got a bit of zing from the hibiscus, a faint hint of spices. I didn’t get any orange. Between my bum nose not being able to smell and the age of the tea I just didn’t get much. It was drinkable but not very flavorful. I bet it would have been better two years ago.

Sipdown

When B&B makes a blend, it’s either really good or really bad. This happened to be a blend I found quite lovely. I purchased a sample (20g) since I wanted to compare it with the Butter Mint. This was the better of the two since the Butter Mint seemed to have a lower quality of milk oolong (it often got bitter). This was far smoother in taste and texture, and it made for a solid cup – slightly sweet and creamy.

Plain, this is really savory and earthy tasting. Since there’s a lot of chicory here, I added sugar and almond milk, and now it tastes similar to a Teeccino blend without much flavoring. I definitely prefer Teeccino. Now I feel like I’m mostly tasting the almond milk. This one just isn’t at all pleasant to drink without the extra help. I guess I don’t get it.

I’m glad I only bought the zodiac sampler because of the 12 teas, there’s really only one I’d like to have again.

This flavor is really nice! It manages to be genuinely candylike in its mintiness. Cold, it’s super refreshing. This is one of the best mint teas I’ve had in recent memory! It’s not as crisp and clear as it could be since there’s also that candy element, but it doesn’t get murky and weird like some mint teas!

Originally I was going to pass on this one. I am a little worried that the natural flavoring involves some sort of milk of the cow. But because it doesn’t explicitly state dairy… I am crossing my fingers. I am also using the rest of it (1tsbp) for flavoring apple chips. The dry aroma is a mix of cherry, kind of stale socks (but not the corn chip kind), hibiscus, and a bit of citrus. The flavor is actually somewhat impressive. The Tiguan yin is not covered but the other flavors like I figured it would be. There is an interesting creamy note (probably the mascarpone) and a hint of cherry. But honestly, the cherry is not nearly as strong as I was hoping it would be.

As it sits, a more complex flavor comes forward. It was fruity, but also a bit spiced and interesting. The resteep might have tasted even stronger than the first. I wish I’d gotten a bigger bag of this! I’ve really been enjoying it cold.

This smells so gingery! I’m a fan of gingernut biscuits, so I was looking forward to this blend. The ginger definitely comes through strongly in the steeped tea. With milk and sugar, it really does taste like gingernut biscuits! The ginger lingers for a little while, though it could have been a bit spicier. So as usual, I wish for a bit more flavoring, but this is really quite decent!

The amount of butter beer copycats out there is pretty astounding. That being said not many get it right. And it makes it even more difficult for the tea community because you basically have to use flavoring in order to achieve the desired flavor. Thus far nothing has come close to the creaminess and wizarding deliciousness that is the butter beer of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal. This does a decent job of adding that bit of butterscotch flavor but it just still lacks the all-around fullness.

Sipdown/Advent Backlog

I’ve mentioned before that my greatest disappointment in the B&B Advent was the high amount of sleepy time teas; which I suppose isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s not their fault I work second shift.

Anyway, I need to get to bed early tonight – as close to 24:00 as possible – to prepare for a tea exchange tomorrow (first a morning workout). I decided it’s time to really get the sipdown pile down and rid myself the worry of having too many bits of tea samples.

Ok, I’m getting somewhat sidetracked. To my surprise, this is a lovely tea. It reminds me of juicy fruit gum, but with a chamomile bite. I’ve been slowly drinking it on and off, and the more it cools, the more fruity it becomes. B&B really does a great job on their blends, but sometimes, when one fails my palate, it really fails my palate. This passes the test.

Ugh this is not a great combination of flavors. Bitter turmeric, not the freshest coconut, and a just okay rooibos base. With almond milk and sugar, it’s technically drinkable, but just sort of bitter and meh.

Cold, this is quite refreshing, if unremarkable. I taste maybe some floral flavors on top of a decent tea backdrop. Actually, the more I drink it, the more I enjoy it. I’m not sure what this is going for, but I’d drink it again!

Free sample from an order! It’s mostly bright and quite minty, but with a definite bit of murkiness. It’s pleasant and refreshing, but I accidentally drank another mint tea right before this, and I prefer the other one!

This is a nice milk oolong! I don’t taste much more going on other than that, but I’m enjoying it with added milk! It’s by far my favorite of the zodiac teas. The resteep was really nice too. It’s just so rich and buttery! I never tasted any of the fruit that’s supposed to be there.

I couldn’t tell what flavor this is supposed to be! The flavor is pretty watery and mild except maybe a tiny bit of fruitiness (apparently it’s passionfruit). It’s all super subdued though. I shared it with someone who loved it!

Sipdown & Backlog April 28, 2024

I had dropped a review of this during the Advent season, which I noted that the rooibos was “too light;” however, that was only a small sample and there’s an opportunity for the tea to become imbalanced. After making a cup of this last evening, I noted that there was ‘too much rooibos,’ which is a-okay for me, maybe not for anyone who dislikes rooibos. I noted that this is has a nice balance between the spices and rooibos, but I’d prefer something more spicy and sweet, rather than mildly sweet and nutty.